Historic Quote: “He would threaten me during intimate moments telling me to do this or that or “I’ll kick your teeth in. But you know, I’d much rather be having fun in the bedroom instead of doing all this talking in the living room.” Elizabeth Ray to a People Magazine reporter referring to her sexual relationship with Wayne Hays.
When I’m not putting my political prognostications on paper, my writing is all about political characters. People, sometimes larger than life, with great stories and tidbits that will keep folks, if not crying, than certainly laughing and perhaps sharing them over the dinner table.
Illinois Congressman Kenneth Gray’s career would certainly invite laughs. Not that he has anything to be ashamed of, for his life is one of honor. But his background made him among the most colorful characters in Congress at the time and a true footnote in more than one area of major Congressional history, laws, and Presidential figures. It also reveals that history may turned out a little bit different had an assassin’s bullet not intervened.
Let’s start with Ken Gray the man because that in itself is a storyteller’s dream. Before going to Congress at age 30, Gray had been a used car dealer, an airport owner, pilot, auctioneer, and magician who would later own an antique museum. The latter two would often make him a highly sought after host at Washington DC charity events (he appeared on the show, “To Tell The Truth”).
On Capitol Hill, Gray was, to put it mildly, ubiquitous. A press release a few years ago announcing the bestowing of an honor on Gray two decades after he left office summed him up in a sentence. He “was known for his flamboyant wardrobe, humor, amicability, and a fierce passion for bring federal funds to southern Illinois.” Gray would be legend for wearing polka-dot bow ties and a profile noted “his Elvis style pompadour hairdo became (his) trademark.” In fact, his taste in clothing was lavish. He could be seen in pink sport coats, a two-tone dress shirt, bow tie and black slacks while driving around in Cadillacs, at least one of which was pink. That same profile points out that “one Washington veteran recalls him, wearing a tuxedo featuring flickering flash-light bulbs in the lapels.”
Gray acknowledged he was different from most members but, to hear him tell it, that was his whole purpose. Years later, he told the Southern, “When I went to Congress, everyone was wearing undertaker suits. Since this was ‘the people’s House,’ I decided we should look and act like regular people.”
Wiki
His eccentricities often gave House leaders an excuse to fill the normally tedious routine business of presiding over the chamber with Gray. Even his lifestyle was his own. While in Washington, he lived on a 50 foot house boat, the “Roll Call.” Gray contended he didn’t have a lot of money thought at least one Washington journalist, the respected Evans and Novak, cited a column that Gray was using his campaign treasury to finance his clothes and living, a practice that was completely legal.
And Gray can boast of another link to history. He recounts how he swung Illinois behind Kennedy, whom he says “everybody knows (was) my favorite president.” This was the convention season when JFK’s nomination was far from foregone. But Gray enlisted Otto Kerner and Paul Douglas, then a Gubernatorial candidate to stump for the Massachusetts Senator. In the fall, Kennedy would come to Illinois. Gray said he has “a 1917 auto, the year Kennedy was born. That’s the automobile he rode in when he came to Marion and Harrisburg during his 1960 campaign.” The election results that fall would prove every vote was crucial, even in regions of the country where Kennedy was not especially popular (southern Illinois was a long ways from the Daley machine of Chicago).
Ken Gray’s 1918 Paige Lot 633 car (manufactured 11/13/17) that Kennedy rode in on visit to southern Illinois in 1960
But Gray’s Camelot connection would extend far deeper than with almost anyone else. He would spend many evenings swapping jokes with the President on the White House lawn but also had a relationship that took a more serious direction.
Gray said Kennedy dispatched him to Cuba to reassure Castro that the new administrations had no bad intentions toward him. But the new President didn’t view that as mutual. He said “John had told me he was suspicious that harm would come to him from that source” and Gray in fact believes the assassination was part of a conspiracy.
Early in his term, Kennedy would ask him to sponsor the legislation that would put the wings in motion to put a man on the moon. He did but as Gray said later, “He never got to see it happen.” But Gray, along with close Kennedy friend and Gray House colleague Torbert MacDonald, babysat Caroline and JFK Jr in the weeks following their President’s assassination, relieving Bobby when he had to get back to the office (a plane was flown to fetch him from Illinois). And Gray later revealed what only a few close associates knew: that Kennedy had planned for Gray to replace him in the White House.
Last year, Gray penned a letter to Caroline Kennedy to reintroduce himself. In the letter, he revealed, “Your dad asked me to run for president after his two terms would have expired. The Constitution only allows two terms for a president and he was not fond of Lyndon Johnson and wanted me to succeed him….He wanted me to be a candidate because he knew we shared the same ideology.” He said he didn’t reveal it sooner because of “fears of self-preservation.”
In another bit of history, Gray was the first person to hire the infamous Elizabeth Ray, the infamous secretary who couldn’t type but who would later go on to service House Administration Committee Chair Wayne Hays in other ways. Gray had little or no knowledge of that but in a bizarre twist to the saga, Ray claimed after Gray left office that she performed sexual favors to who’s who of Washington during parties along Gray’s boat. Gray said he hadn’t seen Ray since she had left his staff four years earlier and the story was all but disproven.
Gray’s district was at the southernmost point of Illinois many points of which, it’s been noted, are closer to Mississippi than Chicago. That meant politically and culturally, it had more in common with its neighbor to the south, Kentucky, than much of the rest of Illinois. But despite the fact that it scorned the national Democratic Party, George McGovern actually ran a point better than his nationwide showing, managing 40%. Indeed, the large student population of the Carbondale campus of the University of Illinois made Jackson County the only one of the 102 (including Cook) that McGovern would carry.
Gray’s service to his country began in World War II when he was stationed in Africa, France, and Italy. His 12 years prior to Congress saw him own a business, Gray’s Motors as well as a small airstrip in Benton, Illinois. He had a number of performance engagements including the Strand Theater.
Gray first came to Congress in 1954 as Democrats were retaking the House. He unseated Congressman Cecil “Runt” Bishop with 53% and became the youngest member to take his seat that session. Despite the fact that he would stay in Congress for 20 years prior to his first retirement, he topped 60%) only twice – in 1964 and 1970. Republicans charged at him in 1958 but ultimately was hurt by President Eisenhower’s veto of a rural development bill. But one asset, along from his larger-than life personality, was his airplane. Gray would use it to fly to events all over the district which he’d credit for seeing more people.
Gray’s most important committee assignment was Public Works where he could dole out more for his small-town, and in some cases economically impoverished district. By 1973, he was number five on the committee and chaired the subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Throughout his tenure, he became known as the “Prince of Pork,” many of which he won by “wheeling and dealing.” Gray estimated a hand in 4,000 projects worth $7 billion for southern Illinois. He defended the regionally lucrative coal industry explaining it “fed his folks,” and would stir audiences by proclaiming, “There is no way we’re writing off coal. But he also made a major mark nationally.
Gray was one of the original sponsors of the Interstate Highway System. But he soon discovered that little of the roads would go through southern Illinois. So he “put in 1,000 miles more,” and that would become I-24. I-57 also came to fruition that year. By the time President Eisenhower signed the bill into law, Gray was in his first term. and he still has the pen he used to do so (“It is the only one he used”). He guestimates his office took care of 1.2 million constituent requests. The Illinois Expressway from mile post zero to post 106 was renamed for Gray. By the time he was done, he secured funding for Rend Lake, a prison, post offices, and many other endeavors.
When critics called the money Gray secured wasteful, he was unapologetic. In particular, the Southern Illinoisan gave him a run for his rhetoric. He would often repeat how the paper calls him “the king of Pork.” He’d respond by bellowing, “And by GOD I am.” Another time he put on a horses voice and yelled, “I say neigh.” But reciting the infrastructure his “pork” had brought to the region, Gray said proudly, “If that is pork, pass me the plate because I’ll take another heaping serving.”
Because the district was not hospitable territory for national Democrats, Gray made sure his voting record was near the center. He opposed busing and supported school prayer. He hedged a bit on open housing, opposing the measure in 1966, voting to send the bill to a House/Senate conference committee in ’68 only to oppose final passage. But he was solidly aligned with labor and opposed the Cambodia bombing.
By late 1973, Gray had a minor heart ailment and decided to call it a career after 20 years (unbeknownst to many, health had prompted him to consider calling it quits as early as 1962). He was succeeded by Simon but stayed in the Washington area as a consultant. Eventually, surgery corrected his heart ailment and eventually, Gray decided he wanted back in the political game.
As a result of his hiatus, both his predecessor and successor would be future Senator Paul Simon.
His opportunity came when Simon decided to challenge Charles Percy for the Senate in 1984. He had a little bit more difficulty than he imagined. In the primary, State Senator Kenneth Buzbee sought to use the “Prince of Pork,” mantra against him, calling his form of “wheeling and dealing out of date.” Buzbee also sought to rehash Elizabeth Ray but to no avail. Gray won 55% at which time he quoted Jackie Gleason by saying, “How sweet it is.”
But he had to get past the general election and in Randy Patchett, his challenge was unexpectedly stiff. For starters, the party was fractured as Buzbee did not endorse Gray until late. Gray eschewed modern techniques such as a campaign organization and commercials, instead preferring, as “Congressional Quarterly” called, “the handshaking, backslapping flamboyance of an earlier era.” inviting folks to visit his museum. That may have been a mistake. Patchett was not particularly known but as Stare’s Attorney, proved fairly articulate. And while Simon’s coattails were strong, so were Reagan’s.
In the end, Gray won his old job back by fewer than 1,200 votes. The 1982 redistricting which had moved Democratic pockets from the venerable Mel Price’s district to help Simon after his own near loss in 1980 clearly brought him over the finish line (it nearly dragged the aging Price down in ’86).
Patchett didn’t concede until December but would return for a second engagement in 1986. This time, Ronald Reagan did an appearance for Patchett. Meanwhile, Gray continued his advocacy of bringing projects back to the district and benefited from his effort to relocate some air traffic from St. Louis to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville. Still, he was concerned enough about the challenge that for the first time in his career, he asked the Democratic Congressional Committee for assistance. But the Democratic disunity of two years earlier had dissipated and Gray won 53-47%.
Gray’s most important achievement may have come in his last year in Congress when Gray secured $1 billion to replace Dams 52 and 53 on the Ohio River. It became known as the Olmsted Dam project.
Gray’s health was again becoming a factor and he decided to retire once more in 1988. But he couldn’t stay away from public policy. Aside from serving on the board of the Rand Lake, he has worked on rural health needs.
Ed Smith, a former labor leader and President of Ullico, Inc. spoke of Gray’s legacy. “No one created more jobs for people who could raise their families, here, and it is fitting that we honor him for his hard work.”
For much of his political life, Gray had a museum to house all of the memorabilia that he had spent a lifetime compiling (including a walking cane given to him by Harry Truman at a ‘48 campaign event Gray was auctioning). He told the Southern in 2003, “People have been good to me. I wanted to give something back. I don’t have a lot of money, so I look at this as, what do you call it, in-kind services.” But by 2008, Gray was hosting one final auction; a sale of the material.“I don’t mind telling you, I cried a bit. It is bittersweet for me. Bitter because I’m having to give up a collection of memories. I put a lot of inspiration and perspiration into this place. But sweet from the standpoint that all the people who helped support me will now have a chance to come buy their favorite item from the museum.” He pledged to donate the money to charity. And a few years ago, Gray had his hair permed.
As for the car Kennedy rode in. “People don’t believe it, but the car was in storage for about 30 years. I put a battery in it, and it started right up. Ninety-two years after it was made – American made.”
Taking the reins at the airstrip once more (photo by Steve Matzker)